Last week during SEC Media Days, Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart fired a dig at Oregon’s longstanding ties with Nike, and how that may affect their recruiting process in the world of NIL deals, which Oregon head coach Dan Lanning has since responded to.
During a speech at the event, Smart spoke about how envious he was of Lanning and Oregon due to the amount of NIL money that Nike is sending the program.
Instead of pushing back against Smart’s claims, Lanning embraced the support he and his program are receiving from Oregon. But he himself is seemingly quite skeptical that Smart and Georgia aren’t getting their own significant funding from partners to give NIL money to top recruits.
“I think it’s impressive that guys like Kirby Smart have been signing the number one class in the nation without any NIL money,” jokes Lanning during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show Thursday. “Obviously, Coach Smart took a little shot at us. I don’t think it’s a secret. If you want to be a top-ten team in college football, you better have great support.
